Mad Dogs was the second most-watched multichannel show of the day after BBC3's 10pm EastEnders repeat (1.061 million), and just ahead of ITV2's Celebrity Juice (955,000).

HOME COOKING BY BIKE

The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best: BBC2, 8pm – the Hairy Bikers marked their return with an average of 2 million viewers, an 8% audience share.

Competition in the 8pm slot included the fifth instalment of Human Planet, BBC1's natural history series narrated by John Hurt, which attracted 4.5 million viewers and an 18.6% audience share.

ITV1's soaps dominated the 8pm hour, unsurprisingly. Emmerdale fetched 7.7 million viewers, a 32.5% audience share, and an average of 8.8 million viewers tuned in to Coronation Street, a 34.5% audience share from 8.30pm. The soaps averaged 78,000 (0.3%) and 138,000 (0.6%) an hour later on ITV1 +1, respectively.

However, EastEnders took the Thursday soap ratings honours, drawing 8.489 million (37.2%) from 7.30pm with an episode in which the strain of the baby swap storyline was showing on Kat and Alfie's marriage.

MARCHLANDS MARCHES ON

Marchlands: ITV1, 9pm –the second of five episodes of ITV1's new supernatural drama pulled in 5.7 million viewers and a 23% share of the audience, winning the slot. Another 138,000 (0.8%) watched on ITV1+1.

The second instalment of the time-shifting drama dropped about 500,000 viewers on last week's series opener.

BBC1 brought in 3.8 million viewers for an Outnumbered repeat at the same time, a 16% audience share – and a jump of 300,000 viewers from last week's episode. Lee Mack's new comedy, Not Going Out, took 3.7 million viewers at 9.30pm, a 15.6% audience share.

Channel 4's Rome Wasn't Built in a Day (1.377 million/5.7%, C4+1 about 100,000) and Channel 5's Justin Lee Collins: Turning Japanese (781,000/3.2%) also ran in the 9pm hour.

MAD MEN? PAH! GIVE ME A SIMPSONS REPEAT ANYDAY

The Simpsons: Sky1, 8.30pm –a brief appearance from Mad Men's Jon Hamm, as an FBI agent, brought in 373,000 viewers and a 1.5% for a new episode of The Simpsons last night.

However, three Sky1 Simpsons repeats earlier in the evening proved more popular, with editions at 6.30pm, 7pm and 7.30pm averaging 411,000 (2%), 595,000 (2.8%) and 465,000 (2%), respectively.

All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated

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